Museum wants to salvage sunken aircraft

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The engine of his plane was failing during his practice bombing mission over Lower Otay Reservoir in the waning months of World War II. The SB2C-4 Helldiver was on its way to becoming the latest casualty in the aircraft's spotty reliability record. Pilots called it “the beast.”

At 3:30 p.m. on May 28, 1945, Frazar completed a wheels-up, flaps-down forced landing into the lake, much like how Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed a U.S. Airways plane on the Hudson River in January after it struck a flock of geese.

Frazar and gunner Joseph M. Metz swam ashore at what now is Bushlow Cove. They were rescued, but their Helldiver sank 85 feet to the bottom of the lake. It remained in obscurity until now, with the Navy's aviation museum saying Tuesday that it wants to restore the plane for display in Pensacola, Fla.

Chances are good that this bomber will be salvaged, said retired Navy Capt. Robert Rasmussen, director of the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.

“We have some hurdles to go over, and we have to decide if it's a viable and feasible operation,” he said. “But our experience with planes sitting this long in fresh water is that they're pretty well-preserved.”

The museum has never salvaged a Helldiver. Rasmussen said its leaders could decide whether to recover the aircraft as soon as Thursday – after divers examine the Helldiver. If they press ahead, it could take months to complete the permitting process.

Recovery and restoration of a World War II plane can cost $35,000 to $250,000, Rasmussen said. The museum's foundation, which relies on donations, is prepared to pay for the project.

The facility lost its only SB2C-4 Helldiver when the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum reclaimed the aircraft for its own use.

“That left the ... aviation museum without a Helldiver. That's a very important plane for that museum's collection,” said Capt. Rich Dann, a former Navy pilot who used to fly out of North Island Naval Air Station. He is helping to plan celebrations for the 100th anniversary of naval aviation in 2011.

More than six decades after the Lower Otay emergency landing, it's unclear whether Metz is still alive. Attempts to locate him have been unsuccessful.

In Texas, Richard Frazar yelled “Wow!” on Tuesday afternoon when he first heard about the possibility of his late father's Helldiver being salvaged.

“I'm really excited about it,” said Frazar, a private pilot who served at Camp Pendleton as part of his 27-year Marine career.

On a wall in Frazar's ranch home in Kerrville are two photos of his dad – an aerial picture of the Navy pilot flying a Helldiver and a ground shot of him about to get into the aircraft.

When Frazar was 6 or 7, he said, his father told him about the emergency lake landing.

“Dad was a pretty cool character, so I don't remember the story having much hype or drama,” Richard Frazar said. “He joked about being glad that things turned out the way they did, otherwise his children wouldn't have been born.”